The Mountains to Sea Trail is in North Carolina. The section which traverses Watauga County is a distance of 16 miles. The intent of this blog shall be to share the progress of our work and the beauty of the trail with others. This blog is hosted and moderated by Shelton Wilder.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Winter Hits Watauga ~ Trails, Trials, Tracks, and Tales

Seeds

Trees fall in winter

pieces of nature growing

beneath our foot prints.

swhaiku 01-07-10

What is this?

Is it a track? Is this a trail marking?

(answer to be found later in this post :)

First, let me catch you up on what has happened up here in Watauga and Ashe along the Blue Ridge Parkway in our section of the MST.

First we were pounded with 21 inches of snow. This huge dump had a couple of freeze-thaw days before the worst ice storm in 50 years hit and layered a solid 1 inch plus of ice on every surface. Then the frigid air came in as single digit temps and all forms of water turned to ice as solid as granite.

As you will recall we had completed quite a nice stretch of the trail by October. This is our trail as you would find it today, January 7, 2010. Somewhere, under there, can be found our clean cut edges, flat foot tread, and clear shoulders. This is typical in any area that passes through forest. In this case a stretch of pines. But, as you will see it was not just the softwood trees that got pruned this time. These piles and piles of limbs, tree tops, branches, vines, and mayhem occur approximately every 10 feet in some stretches. There are some openings, where the sun has revealed the trail tread and turkeys, squirrels, and chipmunks have begun scratching back to seeds beneath the straw.

I imagine we will have 10 days of chainsawing and as many of clearing easily to be done to even catch back up to last October standards.

So, let that be a "heads up" to all volunteers who would like to come do some trail work in these mountains this spring! I recall there was a chainsaw certification class recently and I hope there are many new certified operators and volunteers eager to put your skilz to work! :-)

When I finally got out of that stretch of trail, I noted there had been some spirited cross country skiers (Nordic style) who had come into our trail early on in the big powder back country. When the 21 inches dropped it was wilderness powder and fluff, awesome! (I have not considered that, but most of our trail would be ideal for cross country trailing.)

However that fun has been long forgotten once the icing began. This was my first view of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is closed. It is blocked. It is dangerous. There are fallen trees, limbs, ice, no shoulder, and deep snow. This is fully two weeks since this mess began and there is no end in sight anytime soon. Since I had not been able to hike up to the trail yet I was not fully aware of the damage done on the parkway. The sign should say closed due to

DECONSTRUCTION!

But there is beauty, and there is light, and the brightness of a crisp blue sky on a field of white is its' own reward after too many days of grey clouds and enclosing cabin fever indoors.

So I will take you along on this brief interlude

to see where I looked when I needed to look beyond

the limitations of winters' reality and recall the joy of a trail well known

and the gift it offers to all who make this journey. Remember this fence from the summer of 2009?

I saw this then when photographing the virgins bower clematis vines in blossom and commented they would be beautiful in winter too. Soon new blossoms will push out these old seeds.

Walking in this snow is a challenge. Because of the icing sometimes you do not even crunch though the surface. That is good because there are 10 inches of snow beneath this iced crust covering. However, you may go three steps on top and suddenly punch through 10 inches deep on the next step. Keeps a spring in your knees! That doesn't mean it is easier when you don't crunch through though. Beneath the recent snow fall the layer of ice forms a solid sheet, sometimes inches deep that is as hard to walk on as oil on glass. I keep YAKTRAX on my boots at all times when winter hiking (and yes, clip in gators or other boot gaurds are absolutely necessary).

The sweet spots are where the sun has warmed a soft spot. You can tell from this photo that the critters figured that out long before me. :-)

Nature or beauty~

Calligraphic prints in snow~know a place to go.

swhaiku 01-07-10 Where there is one, there will soon be others, like foot prints in the snow.By creating our trails we create passage ways into natureand the nature of things we have forgotten.

Like, what is the next photo and what does it have to do with trails, tracks, and "soon there will be others"? When there is one turkey, there is another, and when there are hens, there will come gobblers. Strutting their presence into the territory. Claiming these trails for their own personal glory.

The photo above shows the thump and beat pattern of a turkey gobbler beating his outstretched wings on the icy and snow to challenge is territory and herd his hens. Marking his trail. And, I guess these photos do the same for me, mark my trail.In foot prints and in thumping, I was proud to finally get out again too! The sun was getting low and I still had to make it back to the car. It was too difficult to try to walk back along the MST trail, so I followed the parkway out. Ducking under half fallen trees suspended out over the entire parkway width. And nothing was easy about walking on the parkway. Because even on the snowy surfaces.... this solid sheet of ice rules your step and path right down the middle of the road. The ice tree damage was different than most folks from off the mountain would expect. Mostly the hardwoods got busted. Almost all maples, birches, oaks got topped or splintered. This is typical of the maples, limbs cleaved from the core and piling up beneath the tree or suspended on other limbs.

Sometimes it looks like a helicopter with a strong saw blade had flipped upside down and flown through and topped out every tree that had grown too much. And part of that is true, for two years our forests have had good growth seasons and they were due a good pruning.

This kind of fall is hard to clear since it remains attached to the tree and is suspended in other trees. There is so much of this to deal with here in Watauga. Working my way back to the car along the parkway and sharing a view of the current state of the Blue Ridge Parkway with you now..... No straights, you must weave your way walking around falls and debris.

Can you imagine the miles of this in Watauga and Ashe that are becoming iced in daily. And we are expecting more accumulation to come?

Winter is young, winter hits hard.

Neither of our two bridges received damage. That is good. I was worried.

What is this photo? Is it some turkey bird marking its territory?

Nope, but Yes! This is evidence of a big turkey slipping on the ice on the other side of the bridge. ME!!! Time to get to the car and head home.

Kinda says it all.Of course, this helps us remember why it all matters too.

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John Lanman's Trail Report

Trail work will begin again in the spring. Check back for scheduled work days.

828-963-6901

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Look for our MST WORK sign if you want to find us on the trail.

Do You Want to Become a Trail Volunteer?

We welcome new volunteer helpers on the Mountains to Sea Trail in Watauga County. There is something for everyone to do no matter what your ability or experience. We have participants ranging in age from 14 to 84. For more information please contact John (828-963-6901) our Task Force Co-ordinator and Crew leader or Shelton (828.264.5317) Crew Leader and Blog Moderator for more information. We will have scheduled work days on the Thursday prior to the third Saturday of each month AND the third Saturday of each month. We supply all of the tools and gloves. Look for the MST WORK sign along the road. If you miss us at 8:30 come to the Blue Ridge Parkway and look for our orangeMST WORKsign!